Few moments in the year are more wine-friendly, as well as wine-intensive, than now. What with holiday entertaining, gift-giving, gift-getting, and allaround good cheer, this is the wine moment supreme. What’s more, it’s a moment for expensive wines – or at least not the everyday sort we will return to soon enough.

With such generous, expansive (or expensive) thoughts in mind, you might consider the following as a giving-and-getting guide to wines that will make not just an evening, but a memory.

HERE’S THE (SPENDY) DEAL

TRIMBACH PINOT GRIS RESERVE PERSONNELLE 2000 I had you scared there for a moment, didn’t I? You thought I’d blithely tell you about some preposterously expensive wine, something sent to wine writers as a freebie in the hopes that they’ll validate the notion that you’ve just got to spend 200 bucks on, say a French Champagne. Not a chance.

Instead, let me tell you about a really superb dry white wine – a world-beater in fact – that’ll set you back $35, tops. Now, that’s real money for a bottle of wine, although hardly highrolling in today’s era of ho-hum California cabernets routinely asking $100.

The Alsace producer Trimbach, like other shippers in that French border region along the Rhine River, offers different levels (both quality and price) of the same grape variety.

Trimbach famously does this for its dry rieslings, of which there are three quality and price levels. But their stunning, infrequently issued, Reserve Personnelle pinot gris is less often seen.

Most wine drinkers’ familiarity with the pinot gris grape comes from lightweight but unremarkable Italian pinot grigios. They have their place. But with rare exceptions, Italian versions of pinot gris are nothing special.

Alsace, on the other hand, is the wellspring of the world’s greatest, most dimensional and weightiest pinot gris bottlings.Trimbach’s special Reserve Personnelle is one of the stars.The wine comes from the grand cru Osterberg vineyard, as well as neighboring Trottacker vineyard, portions of each are owned by Trimbach.

Trimbach makes a Reserve Personnelle pinot gris from these grapes. The 2000 vintage was one such year. And you won’t need to be an expert to know it either. When you taste this wine you’ll know, in a single sip, that 2000 had to be a swell year – which it was.

This is extraordinarily deep, rich, intense, succulent dry white wine with whiffs of melons, peaches, and quince delivered with a mouthwatering austerity. It seduces rather than overwhelms. (No blowsy, vanilla-scented new French oak here.) This dry white can take on any food from oysters to – believe it or not – foie gras. It’s ideal with chicken or pork, as well. It’s a steal at its $35 asking price.

By the way, pinot gris of this quality ages beautifully.This wine will do nothing but improve for at least another decade (which is good to know if you’re inclined to buy by the case).

MAGNUM MAGIC The most beautiful sight in wine is a magnum being brought to the table.There’s a drama to magnums, as well as a sense of generosity that’s absent by putting two regular-size bottles on the table. It’s the same amount of wine (1.5 liters) but not the same sense of open-handedness. They’re like nothing else.

With that in mind, these magnums are worth seeking out. They are all superb wines, as well as real deals.

BAROLO “CICALA VYD.” 2000, ALDO CONTERNO One of Barolo’s greatest producers,Aldo Conterno’s best wine, for this lifelong Conterno fan, is his greatest wine. Magnums of the great 2000 and 2001 vintages are available for $199 each (at Italian Wine Merchants). Also regular 750 milliliter bottles for $89 each. Both are utterly glorious wines.

MUSCADET “CLOS DES BRIORDS VYD.” 2004, DOMAINE DE LA PEPIERE Got oysters in your future – a lot of oysters? Then this Muscadet, arguably the best in the entire region from 70-year old vines, is the ticket. Intensely mineral, lunar-dry and almost never seen in magnums, this is the (surprisingly cheap) ticket at $30 at Chambers Street Wines, Crush Wine and Spirits, and Astor Wines.

GEVREY-CHAMBERTIN VIEILLES VIGNES 2002, DOMAINE GEANTOT-PANSIOT A magnum of red Burgundy will make anybody a welcome guest – or will make for a swell dinner a deux. Believe me, with a pinot noir this succulent, you’ll find a magnum for two people to be just right. Geantot-Pansiot’s style is for early drinking, as the estate emphasizes bright, dense, rich fruit with some noticeable but not intrusive oak.The 2002 vintage was lovely and the old-vines quality (planted in 1922 and 1961) really shows in the wine’s rich mid-palate. A good deal at $105 at Crush Wine and Spirits. Regular 750s also are available for $52.

TEROLDEGO 2003, FORADORI One of Italy’s most rewarding red wines,teroldego is a rare red grape grown only in the Trento area in northern Italy. The maestra of teroldego, by universal acclaim, is Elisabetta Foradori.

Almost single-handedly, Foradori elevated teroldego from a local tipple to a worldrenowned red. Her 2003 bottling is marvelous: lush, intense, filled with a brambly character with gusts of black cherry and raspberry. It’s soft yet dense. You rarely see this wine in a magnum, but Appellation Wine and Spirits on Tenth Avenue between West 19th and West 20th streets has a supply for $51. Many other merchants carry the 750-milliliter bottle for about $20.